97. Title & Author: Asian Art by John D. La Plante (278 pages)Genre: Nonfiction--Art History
Completed: 10 June 2009
Summary & Review:
Three major cultures of Asia, i.e. India, China, and Japan, and their visual arts are examined beginning with prehistoric periods and ending with short overviews of their modern movements.
This was one of the poorest art history survey texts I've read. I understand that it is difficult to even lightly cover three major civilizations over thousands of years, but La Plante seemed more intent on explaining the sociopolitical landscape than the artistic movements. He would spend most of the chapter about a specific period, e.g. the Heian period of Japan, on the historical setting and political happenings and then he would barely touch on the art. When he did finally manange to mention artworks, he gave "Twitter-esque" blurbs that hardly explained anything. Also, the vast majority of the images were black and white which is just not up to par anymore for a good art history text.
Rating: 3.5
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